I don't own anything related to the Harry Potter franchise
Since classes were canceled for the afternoon to allow everyone to participate in the Dueling Tryouts, Harry decided now was the perfect time to show all of his friends the RoR (Room of Requirements). What this meant was that Hermione, George, Fred, Cedric, Angelina, Alicia, Katie and Selene were currently standing in the seventh floor corridor with visible confusion on their faces, while Neville and Fleur were sporting knowing smiles… In a repetition of just the night before with Fleur, Harry was currently pacing up and down the length of the hallway for seemingly no reason...
Finally a door appeared in the wall from out of nowhere, causing the Twins to begin bouncing around in their rapidly escalating excitement.
"Oh Harry! You always have the best surprises," George happily called out.
"A room we didn't know about at all, awesome," Fred finished.
"Not just any room," Neville added with a smile. "I'm pretty sure this is the single most magical room in the whole entire school."
"The Room of Requirements," Harry announced with an arm flourish. "I just walked up and down this hallway three times in great need of a replica of a sunny day by the lake. What do you think we'll find?"
"No way..." It was Neville's turn to be stunned now. "Too big…"
Without another word, Harry opened the door and… grass, soil, sunlight, clean air. They walked out towards a recognizable bank of the Black Lake and it all looked completely real.
"How far can you go?" Neville looked overawed at the scope of what they were looking at.
"The room is about thirty meters long right now, but the illusions are so good you wouldn't know it," Harry cheerfully replied as he turned towards his friends and crossed his arms in Professor mode. "The room of requirements becomes a replica of anything that you need the moment that you enter it, but if you focus extra hard, you can also bring things into being after the fact. This room is literally an endless tool of different configurations and uses."
With yet another wave of his hand Harry suddenly changed the room around them to be a perfect replica of the Gryffindor common room. "Until I deal with Krum, I wanted us all to make use of this space whenever we aren't together. I don't have proof beyond how his magic feels, but please just take my word for it. Krum is both dangerous and a killer. I don't like the idea of any of you walking around Hogwarts alone and unprotected. The door into this room can cease to exist, at which point it becomes the safest location in the whole entire school."
At this point, all of the Hogwarts team members were just standing around looking completely stunned. The versatility of the RoR always has that effect on people at first. Selene and Hermione were the exceptions. They both looked like they were taking it all in with excellent calm.
"I'm sold," Cedric easily injected into the quiet of the room. "I just want to know if I can bring Cho here."
While nodding at Cedric, Harry walked over to the boy. "Of course you can, but I have a request. Cho mustn't tell anyone else about this room or its abilities... The secret of this room must be kept to a small group or it won't be a secret for longer than a week or two at the most. I don't know Cho very well, but you seem quite taken with her, and I trust your judgment."
"Thank you Harry... I will impress on Cho the importance of keeping the information to herself." Cedric looked like he was taking the situation very seriously.
"That's all I needed to hear then..." Harry patted Cedric on the shoulder, because as he'd learned to expect, the boy was a very thoughtful friend.
"Show us these secret workout facilities of yours," George suddenly demanded with a smile. "We never thought to ask about th…"
"Pool!"
Selene very suddenly interrupted George, when she yelled out the word "pool" in an extremely loud and excited voice. "I want to see a pool," she repeated a second time as she rounded on George with an openly feral smile on her face that just dared him to defy her.
With zero hesitation whatsoever, George gave Selene a smile and a picture perfect, courtly, bow. He's the type of guy who knows very well when he's been soundly defeated by the fairer sex.
In the moments that followed Selene's request, all of the women in the group started looking excited at the prospect of swimming, while all of the men in the group were very careful to look as casual as possible, so that they could avoid looking like a bunch of perverts.
Fleur, however, was looking at Harry with a question in her eyes.
Locking eyes with Fleur, Harry just shrugged his shoulders before nodding his head in acceptance. Next, he smiled at everyone as he created a perfect replica of a summer day in the Delacour backyard.
Everyone turned in place, oohing and ahhing at the pretty location as well as the wonderful heat that the fake sun was giving off.
After tapping his chin in thought, Harry turned towards a pile of towels, Transfigured them into simple bathing suits for the men and then he paused… "Fleur, love... Can you create some bathing suits for the ladies for me? I don't think I'd accurately judge the girl's measurements, or enjoy the consequences if I did..."
All of the men immediately began laughing at Harry's truly wise decision making process.
Fleur beamed at her lover as she drew the ladies behind a privacy screen that appeared out of nowhere.
"Guys..." Harry gestured for all of the men to give him a moment as he handed them all their bathing suits. "Before I strip down, I'll give you a brief warning. Neville, George and Fred know a little about my upbringing but…"
"How bad are they?" All of the sudden, Neville looked both deadly serious and extraordinarily pissed off.
"Comprehensive," Harry slowly replied. "I've recently healed them to be less... angry, but they won't completely disappear... ever."
Up until now, Cedric had looked confused, but as he put together Harry's meaning, his knuckles started turning white. Very suddenly he'd joined Neville in looking extremely pissed off.
"Relax guys. It's all in the past and all that jazz. Let's get changed before the ladies return." Harry smiled to take some of the seriousness out of the moment before returning his attention back towards his Transfigured shorts. He was mostly looking away because he wanted everyone to have some privacy as they took in his body. He was well-aware that he wasn't ugly, but what the scars symbolized was and it was upsetting. Pulling off his team jacket and then his tank top, he quickly shed his pants and then drew his bathing suit up his legs. When he finally turned around again, he found four men already in the pool, wading around, splashing each other and being awesome.
"I have good friends," Harry whispered to himself.
"Yes," replied Fleur, as she walked up behind Harry and slid a hand along his waist. "You do."
As per usual, Harry was completely stunned by Fleur's unbelievable sex appeal. She was wearing a one piece bathing suit again, which meant that her swimming apparel was about as modest as that type of clothing can be, but... hot damn was the term that seemed the most appropriate at the moment. Without a second thought, Harry allowed a hot flush to appear upon his face, so that Fleur would see it and know that he appreciated her appearance.
As she took in the heat on Harry's face, Fleur beamed at him for showing her his physical reactions, as she knew it would be easy for him to hide all of his emotions as well as control his body chemistry, and she appreciated his willingness to be transparent for her. Taking a step closer, she pressed her forehead against Harry's shoulder, so that she could whisper directly into the flesh of his collarbone. "Of course the girls are going to find it a little bit harder to be casual about all of the scarring, but that's because they'll want to mother you." Along with her words, Fleur ran a hand along Harry's shoulder and chest. "I informed them all that you are mine to smother with affection, and they laughed."
Leaning even harder against her lover's body, Fleur whispered directly into his ear. "I don't think they realized just how serious I was being…"
"All yours, love," Harry quietly murmured into Fleur's shiny platinum hair. "Now, let's take a step back, before I reveal more than a blush to the rest of our friends…"
With a quick but sexually charged little laugh, Fleur stepped back to stare up into Harry's eyes. "Well, we can't have that now can we..."
After locking eyes for several more seconds, Harry and Fleur finally pulled themselves apart.
With suspiciously good timing, the Gryff girls, Hermione and Selene, slowly walked up to give Harry five nearly identical elevator stares. After looking at his calves, arms, chest, stomach and back, the girls froze in place for several seconds, their faces a mixture of both sadness and… awe.
"You make it work for you," Alicia suddenly declared with a somewhat rakish grin. "You look like an elaborately stylized warrior slash assassin out of a Tarantino movie. I know that they ARE real, but your scars are still far too pretty to be real. They look like they've been added by an artist..."
Katie nodded emphatically to Alicia's words with her knuckles pressed against her lips.
Angelina, on the other hand, looked completely furious. "I agree with Alicia and Katie, but... It doesn't change the fact that your 'relatives'... should pay."
Hermione could only nod as she was both pissed off and extremely close to tears. Of course, at this point she'd already been told Harry's life story, but she'd never once asked to see his skin. She realized in that moment that she'd been avoiding her current reaction. She'd been too afraid to actually see his life story hitting home in such a dramatic fashion. As she blinked away some of the wetness that was pooling in her eyes, Hermione dedicated herself to being braver in the future. She needed to be there for her brother...
Moving up behind Harry's back again, Fleur rested her chin atop his shoulder, hugged him tightly from behind, and then smiled in an openly evil fashion at all the girls that were lined up in front of him. "Ze punishment process for zose cretins ze Dursleys began 'alfway through ze summer. Eet ees still ongoing because we French Veela are both patient and… thorough, when eet comes to zis nature of justice. My mozzer was extremely displeased wiz ze 'orrible memories we encountered while we were 'elping 'Arry sort out 'is MIndscape Occlusions."
The Gryff girls, Hermione and Selene all ended up nodding without needing to hear anything further. The openly feral look on Fleur's face had answered any questions that they might've had to ask about the fate of Harry's relatives. Even the very liberal and muggle friendly, social justice warrior Hermione, looked grimly pleased that the Dursleys were most likely suffering a fate worse than death, and she didn't even hesitate to join the rest of the girls when they all jumped into the pool.
Harry, on the other hand, was left just standing there, giving Fleur a curious look over his shoulder.
"Ze Delacours are a sophisticated family, 'Arry. Outright murder ees not our way," Fleur explained in a very quiet but firm tone of voice. "Your so-called 'relatives' are currently experiencing every form of ruin eemaginable… and zey will continue doing so for a very, very long time…"
As he processed this new information, Harry closed his eyes and slowly began drawing in a very deep breath. Truth be told, Harry had been wondering for quite a while now how he would eventually deal with his relatives, because it was an inescapable fact that he needed to seek justice for the brutalization that he experienced growing up… but he'd worried about the sick and twisted lengths that he might end up going to if he allowed himself to act on all of the hatred and anger he felt for them, which is why he'd put off the task for some unidentified time in the future…
Now, as it turns out, Harry's brand new girlfriend and her mother had sorted everything out for him in the fashion that outraged Veela tend to do, which likely meant that the Dursleys were actively seeking the sweet release of death at this point… and were completely unable to find it...
Good.
After fully inflating his lungs with air and then reopening his eyes, Harry smiled softly at his girlfriend, slowly turned to give her a hug, and then whispered down into her ear. "I'll likely ask to see a Pensive memory of your actions someday, but I think I'll wait until I've finished smoothing out my mental health. In the meantime… Thank you, Fleur… Love you, Fleur."
For several moments in a row, Fleur wiggled happily in Harry's arms, happy as all get-out that she got to be the reckoning that her lover needed oh so very badly. Then she suddenly snapped out of her self-satisfaction, and addressed her future mate. "You are a Delacour now, 'Arry… and you are all mine to take care of. No one will treat you even a fraction zat poorly and get away with eet... ever... again." With that said, Fleur abruptly bounced back a step and motioned down towards the water. "Now let us swim, 'Arry... I still need to up my magical power output een water."
While smiling at his most excellent of girlfriends, Harry walked towards the edge of the pool to dip a toe into the water, at which point he was hit with a full power allure assault from behind, causing him to stumble forward to splash into the water. Even as he allowed the water to cool the hot flush that he felt on his face, Harry smiled in nostalgia. Some things would never change…
He wouldn't want them to.
Rising laughter announced that all of the girls were returning to Harry's side and that they were intending to pummel him within a tidal wave of splashing water.
The men soon came over to join in on the fun, and everyone played around in the pool for a little over an hour. As they calmed down, they moved over to the Delacour's massive hot-tub to relax.
Easing down into the hot water with a happy sigh, Harry closed his eyes and listened to his friend's chatter back and forth. At this point, they were all just debating how to schedule their time so that they'd be together in the RoR as often as possible.
"When Fleur becomes a Champion, this room will be invaluable. It can become a serious dueling arena with major spell protections all over the walls..." Harry was talking about Fleur becoming a Champion as if it were a given because... it was. Hell… According to Fleur's trainer Mr. Garner. she would already pass the Auror training program's final examinations with very little trouble, because of her high class spellchain skills and talent with animal Conjuration.
Smiling confidently, Cedric crossed his arms in front of himself in a manly fashion. "Well, Fleur will be sharing the digs then, because I'm entering the tournament as well."
For just a moment, Angelina looked a little jealous, but she'd already decided that she was taking her Quidditch team Captain position way too seriously to divide her attention.
After swiveling his eyes back and forth between Cedric and Fleur, Harry suddenly smiled at the two of them in a laid back fashion. "Good stuff. I think that might work out. You two are both good sports, so you won't be jerks to each other on purpose. I'd be proud to have both a friend and girlfriend as Champions." Leaning in towards Fleur, Harry ran a hand along her waist. "I'd much rather have you compete against a Champion I know and trust, rather than some unknown."
Immediately after smiling at Harry, both Fleur and Cedric smiled at each other, because in the end, they agreed with his assessment.
After floating closer to her lover without even realizing it, Fleur found herself leaning hard into Harry's side and laying her head against his shoulder. After his heroic actions from just a few hours earlier, and with him looking as good as he does in just a Conjured bathing suit, she was having some serious trouble keeping herself to herself. Then, as she felt her hand sliding down the man's waist to rub at his thigh, she realized that she really was having trouble controlling herself... Over the next half a minute, Fleur attempted to remind herself that they were surrounded by their friends, but to her immense surprise, their presence just didn't seem to matter. She couldn't do it, she didn't want to move. She figured a little bit of intimacy would be just fine, so long as she kept their contact to what could be considered... friendly.
Less than ten minutes later, Fleur somehow found herself very thoroughly occupying Harry's lap, with her back pressed flush to his chest and her hands slowly running up and down the outside of his thighs. Somehow, defying all logic, she was still trying to tell herself that she was merely being 'friendly.'
It was never more obvious to Fleur then right then and there, that she was… indeed… a Veela…
By this point, Harry was quite noticeably just barely hanging in there, as he was subjected to both Fleur's unbelievable body and her relentlessly teasing hands. Despite the fact that he had nearly perfect control over both his body and his mind, his face was red and he was breathing shallower than normal into the silky smooth skin of Fleur's neck. The fact of the matter was that an elevated heart rate was the very least of his concerns at the moment. Ninety nine point nine percent of his mental fortitude was currently going towards Occluding the more socially unacceptable and dramatic reaction that his body was in danger of having.
Harry Potter's life currently hurt sooo damned good...
All of the women present found themselves blushing right along with Harry, as a so far unknown aspect of Fleur's character suddenly made itself abundantly clear.
Alicia and Katie watched Fred and George like twin hawks, just waiting for them to slip up.
All of the men present carefully avoided staring at Fleur because A) Harry was their friend, B) the Gryff girls were watching, and C) they valued their continued survival.
Long story short, Neville, Cedric, Fred and George all found themselves competing in a staring contest with Alicia, Katie, Angelina, Selene and Hermione. For several minutes in a row, the entire group of them fought a battle of wills of some kind, and no one knew where it would end. Then, very suddenly, the tension finally cracked like an egg when Selene started giggling and simply couldn't stop. It was a very quiet thing at first, but soon enough, there were tears of mirth running down several people's faces and they'd all completely unraveled. Following that moment, everyone just seemed to get over it, settle in, and begin relaxing like it was their job.
By the time it was time to head to Quidditch practice, the entire team were relaxed almost into a coma and it was nearly impossible to get moving again.
It was an excellent afternoon.
Mr. Bartemius Crouch Senior sat very still in the middle of his living room. He was sitting in front of a twitching and nervous man, who was missing a finger. The man was pointing a wand at him, layering several more Imperio spells on the already Imperio'd man.
"You w..will push for more dangerous tasks in, in the tournament," Wormtail stuttered out, in a mockery of a commanding voice. "You will recruit that di..disgusting woman Umbridge to help you. She is unknowingly an agent of ours and will be eager to aid you if you tell her it's to showcase how dangerous magical creatures are. She has a political agenda to put heavier sanctions and controls on magical creatures, so people getting hurt in the tournament will perfectly suit her goals. You will not aid Harry Potter when he is entered into the tournament. You will make this tournament a fiasco and the government look weak."
Mr. Crouch just kept nodding with perfect posture, which for him looked completely ordinary.
Three Weeks Later…
It was October the thirty-first, and Harry had high hopes that it would be his best Halloween ever. Admittedly, such a thing wouldn't be all that difficult to accomplish. The thirty-firstt is the anniversary of his parent's murder, so he'd most likely never manage to feel at his best on this particular day, even if it does end up being completely ordinary. The problem so far has always been that Halloween never does end up being ordinary. Up until now, Harry had always been attacked, framed or otherwise almost killed on Halloween, ever since entering Hogwarts.
The difference today was that his friends seemed to be staying close by and supportive to an extent that he'd never experienced before. It was also a Saturday and a Hogsmeade weekend, so their Quidditch practice had been canceled for the day.
Harry couldn't help but smile as Neville ran his morning run with him. By now, he'd figured out just how much the boy hated running, but Neville was clearly committed to keeping Harry from brooding by being nearby at all times. They were joined by Fred, George and the rest of the team, which was quite the sight for the milling around Lightning Bolts. They all looked pretty sharp because Harry had gifted Neville some extra Hogwarts gear, which meant that they were all wearing essentially the same clothing.
A few weeks earlier, the whole team had followed Harry's lead by going to Andromeda Tonks for representation with talent scouts, and they'd all begun receiving swag a week ago by interested companies and teams. In the end, the whole team, even the backups, had been approached by talent scouts, and they'd all receive propositions for potential placement if they represented themselves well throughout the tournament. For obvious reasons, team morale was extraordinarily high, and they were all becoming extremely close.
Speaking of negotiations, Harry was currently in communication with both England and France's major Quidditch teams, and both set of recruiters had committed to approaching him after seeing the first inter-school match. They both said they wanted to see how he does in a match setting before committing to a price. At the moment, they were all being very careful because Andromeda was unbelievably good at what she does, and she wasn't selling him cheap.
When the entire team finished their jog at around the same time (Harry felt like he was walking the whole time, but he appreciated the company nonetheless), the twins asked Harry to finally show them the workout configuration in the RoR. Both Cedric and Fleur had dropped their names in the Goblet of Fire the night before, and Dobby could drop off food if and when they became hungry, so they didn't need to go to the Great Hall for breakfast or anything.
Ten minutes later, when the entire group of them arrived at the RoR, Harry realized that his arrival was expected as part of a larger plan of some kind, because the workout room was no longer a room. All of the equipment they'd just brought into being was sitting in the middle of a beautiful beach scene, where a few familiar ladies were hanging out in the water.
Selene, Cho, Hannah and Hermione were just goofing around in the shallows, chatting and listening to music on a nearby wizarding wireless. This caused Harry to smile because he loved that Mione had learned how to relax every once in a while. Fleur was also in the water, but unlike the others, she was currently casting a rapid chain of utility spells with her shoulders submerged under the water. While the French blonde still looked extremely strained when generating magic underwater, she was also doing noticeably better than she had just a few months earlier.
Fleur Delacour was a remarkably talented witch, but she also excelled because she poured her heart and soul into absolutely everything that she did. Not so surprisingly to Harry, as soon as he saw his girlfriend's face scrunched up in effort, he found himself locked in place and staring...
Slowly but surely over the last three weeks, Fleur had begun to make Harry's carefully controlled body twitch and throb with need. His every sense was being assaulted by how perfect his girlfriend was, and if he wasn't careful it was enough to drive him to distraction. He knew for a fact that it wasn't an allure doing these things, as he'd immediately have felt such a thing in his shroud. Instead, what he was experiencing was a purely physical attunement that was being carried out through magical means. That knowledge didn't make the changes they were undergoing feel any less profound. Somehow, without looking different at all, everything in regards to Fleur felt an impossible to describe... more.
For well over a week now, Harry had been controlling his body with extremely powerful applications of Occlumency, and that was with Fleur carefully containing her allure.
Before Harry even managed to move away from his spot standing in the doorway, Fleur abruptly turned in his direction as if she could feel his eyes upon her body. Then, when their eyes met, they locked as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. It was exactly as she'd explained it would be.
The polarization process wasn't a one way street…
No… Fleur was feeling it. Or rather, the woman was having a really rough go of it, which is why for over two weeks now, the two of them hadn't made any physical contact with each other whatsoever. The prohibition sucked to say the very least, but it couldn't be helped if they were going to remain on their best behavior.
Partially because Fleur was a try-hard who liked to over-prepare for quite literally everything she does, and partially because it was a worthwhile distraction, Harry and Fleur spent the last two weeks pouring over the library's history section, learning everything that they could about the Triwizard Tournaments of yore. They cataloged all of the tasks and mini-tasks that were ever staged, what magical creatures were involved, what skills were displayed, what magics needed to be mastered, and in what order they were used. Every single evening, the two of them would spend several hours sitting at a booth table in the middle of the library with various historical records and scrolls in hand…
And it was fun. Gods and Goddesses help him, but Harry Potter enjoyed every single second of it…
One thing that Harry did NOT enjoy, was the fact that he couldn't subtly settle things with that bastard Krum during any of their meals or in one of the school's more secluded halls, because the man was never present at Hogwarts long enough to do so. Victor Krum was exempt from his normal classes even before becoming a Champion, due to the fact that he needed to travel the world on a regular basis, playing Quidditch, meeting sponsors, taking part in events, etc. Then, when the man did return to Hogwarts to rejoin his school, the cretin never actually left the Durmstrang Ship, which could only mean that his Headmaster was trying to keep him under very tight control…
In response to Krum's absence, the fact that Harry didn't know where the man was, when he was returning, or what he was going to do when he did, Harry and Fleur spent quite a bit of time practicing anti-Krum countermeasures, in which Fleur would attempt to swamp Harry's body with her allure, while he tried out various methods of preventing her from doing so. This training also proved valuable, as it granted Fleur better control over her aura based powers, and benefitted Harry's dodging skills at exactly the same time.
Harry and Fleur trained together, ate together, and studied together. They figured out how not to alienate their friendships in their eagerness to see each other, they ironed out the kinks of their friendship turned love affair, and they just generally grew closer as lovers.
Finally, last night, Fleur sent Harry a letter just as he was getting ready for bed. Among several other things, the letter explained that Fleur received confirmation from her mother that all was well at the Delacour manse and that she should do what she felt was necessary. Of course, her father was currently in a mood and sulking during all of his free time, but given time, he'd eventually finish calming down. As a side note, Fleur also wrote that by today the attunement process happening between the two of them would be one hundred percent completed.
A process that had Harry and Fleur stuck still and staring at each other for several moments longer, before they both bodily shivered and forced themselves to turn away.
After moving towards the Quidditch team and the gym equipment, Harry began running himself through a weight lifting circuit with his magic outstretched (he didn't have any desire to show off inhuman strength). To his surprise, everyone still seemed pretty impressed with his strength, despite all of his attempts at discretion. "If you think I'm strong, then you should see Neville over there," Harry shamelessly deflected, while adopting all of the mannerisms of an extremely doting parent.
While Neville couldn't quite stop a blush from forming on his face, Hannah looked extremely happy with Harry, from her seat over by the water. Hannah had come to appreciate Harry more and more over time, because Neville kept becoming stronger and more confident as a person. It finally got to the point where Hannah straight up asked the boy both why and how he was changing so dramatically for the better? In the end, despite the fact that he himself was the one that was putting in all of the effort, Neville attributed a lot of his recent growth to Harry's influence. An opinion that won over the somewhat shy Hufflepuff, and nowadays she was perfectly happy to spend time with him and Fleur..
And now that she was finished with her magic practice, Fleur was quite happy to join Harry and the rest of his friends in their workout, performing an impressive amount of pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, and squats...
Lots and lots and lots of squats.
Harry was a fan.
Cedric and Neville showed that they were both better than average men, by keeping their attentions focused on their ladies of choice. George and Fred had confided in Harry that they were aiming for Katie and Alicia and they likewise stayed on their games. It was common knowledge that Angelina became an item with Oliver Wood at the end of the last school year, and that they were still going strong.
With almost everyone in the room either a target of someone's attention or actively pursuing someone, Harry began wondering about Hermione and what he could do for her. Thankfully, he almost immediately managed to shake that thought off as a terrible line of thinking, extremely unwise and an enormous waste of time. Hermione was smart... like super genius smart. If she wanted a man right now, right this very second, then she'd damn well have one. He'd endlessly projected all of her positive attributes towards her over the last few months, because he'd been determined to iron out her rather unreasonable and tenacious low self-esteem, and while she'd figured out what he was doing almost immediately, his efforts still bore fruit in various ways.
Long story short, Hermione's self-confidence had grown quite a bit. She'd also just said "ah to hell with it" one day and had Madam Pomfrey fix her teeth (All of the women present were extremely pleased with her because of that decision).
Harry just hoped to the Gods that Mione didn't still hold a torch of some kind for Ronald. If it came down to it, Harry would make the boy disappear, even if he had to risk asking Adrien for advice on the matter.
A little less than half an hour later, everyone's exercises came to an end, and Fleur approached Harry from behind, where she elicited a shiver from him simply by running a single finger across his neck and shoulder. "'Arry… I want you to prove zat you've actually been practicing ze piano," she purred into his ear.
Even as he turned his head to the side to rub his cheek against Fleur's for the first time in fourteen days, Harry couldn't stop himself from arching his eyebrows in surprise. "Well, yes. I've definitely been practicing. In fact, I recently became a level eight. Still… I'm definitely not a recital pianist by any stretch of the imagination…"
In the immensity of her surprise, Hermione's face rapidly swiveled up from the magazine she'd been reading, to stare a hole into the side of Harry's face. "Harry!... You took up an instrument, and you never even told me?!"
Smiling mischievously, Harry crouched down next to Mione's lounge chair and crossed his arms atop its arm-rest. "I wanted to retain some mystery, Mione. Just because I'm no longer broody, doesn't mean I won't keep entertaining secrets. I wanted to surprise you."
Hermione beamed a smile at Harry for just a single second before she suddenly shifted her attention in Fleur's direction. "You're right. This needs to be seen to be believed."
Soon enough, both Hermione and Fleur were standing side by side and giving Harry nearly identical meaningful looks.
As Harry took in the two most influential women in his life, he started to blush just a little bit. He could deny it all he wanted, but he already knew exactly where this was going… There was only one really nice, really appropriate for this situation, piano piece that he knew well enough to recite with any great skill.
Fleur's favorite piano piece was called Clair de Lune by Debussy… and he practiced it more than any other song, because she loved it and he loved her...
Then again, there was also a second reason why Claire de Lune was an excellent choice of music, considering their current audience.
According to Fleur, the composer Debussy was a muggle...
Due to the tendency for wizard-kind to disregard muggle innovations, there was actually a pretty good chance that none of his magically raised friends knew anything about some of the world's most famous composers (minus Hermione, Cedric, Alicia and Katie who all have at least one muggle family member). Harry hoped that his pureblood wizard friends would enjoy the piano piece, as this was more than likely going to be the very first time that they heard it.
All of the people that had been playing around in the distance, appeared to have noticed that something interesting was about to happen, because they all started drifting over in dribs and drabs even as Fleur and Hermione conspired with each other. Harry couldn't help but feel just a little bit of anxiety, as Fleur summoned a piano using the room's far too convenient magic. While Harry might have been tackling his lack of self-confidence lately, that didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to become a performer… Even as those thoughts swirled around in his mind, Fleur mercilessly brought forth a small band-shell to improve sound quality, bringing an air of legitimacy to the situation that somehow made Harry feel even more nervous.
With a nearly silent sigh, Harry slowly approached the grand piano, sat down on the provided bench and then gave Fleur a meaningful look. "Well, Fleur, I only have one song completely perfected... It makes me think of you every single time."
When Fleur's mischievous expression suddenly softened into one that was far more emotionally charged, Harry knew that she'd figured out what song he had in mind.
"Please," Fleur whispered, in a somewhat breathy voice.
Following Fleur's nearly choked out request, everyone turned towards her in their confusion. The woman was acting all demure all of the sudden, and it was extremely out of character.
As he walked towards the piano, Harry stretched out his fingers, quickly trying to limber up. Then, when he sat down on the piano bench, he gestured for everyone to have some patience with him as he performed some quick and dirty scales. Almost immediately, Harry could feel that something was off... His hands felt kind of clumsy and stiff out here in the real world. Stretching out his hands again to loosen up some muscle tension, Harry shook off his nerves and settled in to perform.
Up until now, Harry'd only ever practiced the piano inside of his Mindscape. What that meant was that magically speaking, he was quite good at playing the instrument, but he had no idea how he'd fare out here in the physical world. With that thought in mind, Harry soaked the piano keys with his magic so that they'd feel familiar to him. He was hoping that he could use his magic's eidetic memory to supplant the muscle memory that he was lacking out here in the physical world. It goes without saying that Harry was still pretty nervous. If his little gimmick didn't work out, then he'd more than likely look like an overconfident amateur…
Over the next half a minute, Harry threw away his nerves as he brought to mind all of the things that he liked about this particular piece of music. Finally he succeeded, and a smile formed unbidden upon his face. He felt ready...
As Harry began playing the piece, he made sure to keep in mind why it reminded him of Fleur. The first few bars of the song are singular, striking, maybe even a little bit remote, while at the same time maintaining an air of cool sophistication, and for Harry it had always felt like Fleur's first impression. When you first meet Fleur, she comes off as cool, calm, collected, graceful and poised, but when you finally manage to peel away her veneer of well-polished elegance, you'll find many intense emotions and complexities pouring out from within. A learning process that perfectly suited the riser of the piano piece, and allowed Harry to add the emotional context that all really meaningful piano performances are supposed to contain. A riser that led into a softer, gentler and much more friendly feeling bridge. A bridge that led into an even softer and far more intimate feeling outro, at which point Harry wrapped up the song with absurd amounts of care...
When the last notes of the piece faded out on the strings, Harry slowly closed the piano and then looked down at his hands. Now that he'd completed the song, he didn't know quite what to do... At this point, he was feeling a little bit vulnerable and raw, because of how much emotion he'd just poured out into his performance. Finally, after several very quiet moments, Harry rose up to his feet and turned around.
There were a few things that Harry hadn't been aware of while he'd been playing the piece. First of all, he hadn't realized that his aura shroud had been out in full force and filling the entire room as he played. He also hadn't realized that his magic had infused itself directly into the music, due to the fact that he'd saturated the piano strings with it. Finally, he hadn't noticed until right that second, that he'd been broadcasting his emotions through both the medium of the music and his aura shroud…
The effect of all of these things combined had apparently been just a little bit... overwhelming.
Hermione, Katie, Cho, Angelina, Selene, Alicia and Hannah, were all openly weeping while blushing a bright red into their hands.
Fred and George looked completely stunned.
Cedric and Neville were smiling. Both men were rather touched and didn't seem to mind it showing on their faces.
Fleur... Well... Fleur was on her knees, with tears pouring out of her eyes in fast flowing torrents. As a wet hiccup trailed a high pitched mewl of unrestrained emotion, she continued waving her hands towards her bright red face. The movements made her look as if she was overheating or possibly concerned about hyperventilating. She was also blasting Harry with every scrap of allure that she contained, with so much focus that no one else in the room even knew that it was happening.
After rubbing the back of his neck in that same old chagrin response, Harry shook himself out and focused on the now. Slowly and gently, he pulled his magic back into himself, and then he blinked in surprise when everyone seemed to wilt just a little. Uhuh, okay… While Harry hadn't meant to broadcast like he had in the first place, he was a little bit relieved that his aura had at least felt comforting.
With that much accomplished, Harry looked down at Fleur again. They locked eyes. They stared at each other... Fleur was still bombarding him with all of her allure, and now that he'd pulled his aura shroud back into his body, its effect was rapidly increasing in intensity. With every moment that passed, he could feel his body beginning to respond as his desire for his girlfriend skyrocketed. As quickly as possible, Harry negated the allure's effects inside of his Mindscape, before he completely lost control of his mental faculties. Next, he slowly approached the teenaged Veela as if she was a skittish animal, and then squatted down with his knees at her sides. Cradling Fleur's face in both of his hands, Harry wiped away some of her tears before slowly drawing her into a hug. Gods and Goddesses... His girlfriend looked like she was mere moments away from fainting in the grass.
"If everyone could give the two of us just a few moments alone... I think I broke my Fleur," Harry said in a very quiet voice... In the dead silence filling the room, Harry might as well have been shouting. Everyone heard him quite clearly.
All of the people present slowly nodded their heads and then silently walked away. They were all acting as if the current mood in the room was an egg that would break at the slightest rough handling.
Harry could quite easily see that Fleur was overwhelmed, so he collected her up into his lap and began rubbing slow circles into her lower back. She was clutching onto him tightly as if he'd fly away and... sobbing isn't quite the right word because she was clearly happy just... sobbing.
After a few quiet moments, Harry started whispering softly into Fleur's ear as he gently ran his hands along her back, shoulders and neck. "Fleur... I kept my feelings regarding you solely in my Mindscape for several months in a row. I kept them contained in there and under very tight control, lest I broadcast them to you by accident... Every night, I'd practice the piano inside of my Mindscape while I was experiencing the full weight of those emotions. I don't restrain my aura in that place either, so that's how I've become used to making music… I… To be honest, I didn't know that I was recreating those feelings and circumstances out here in front of our friends… but I'm happy that you were able to experience it…"
"Love... you... 'Arry," Fleur choked out in French between another hiccup and a sniff. "So much 'Arry." Fleur was completely incapable of calming down and was clutching at Harry's shirt like a lifeline. "It's too much 'Arry... Feel out of control... 'Arry..."
When crouching with Fleur's full weight resting on his knees started getting a little bit uncomfortable, Harry picked up his girlfriend and carried her over to a shady tree at the far side of the room. While summoning a bed was easy enough, actually laying Fleur down was extremely difficult because she completely refused to unwrap herself from around his body.
Soon enough, Harry found himself on the bed and looking up through the tree's dense foliage. This was perhaps the most surreal thing that'd ever happened to him in his whole entire life. Fleur was barely conscious at the moment, but that hadn't stopped her from bodily yanking him down onto the bed as if he was trying to get away. Even now, she was wrapped around his body with both her arms and her legs, with her face firmly pressed into his neck. In return, Harry was running his hand up and down her back in what he hoped were soothing circles. Slowly, over time, Fleur's body stopped trembling and her breathing returned to normal...
Extending his magical senses throughout the room, Harry saw that their friends were currently competing to see who could conjure the most breathtaking view on the far side of the room. He was relieved because he'd been somewhat afraid that he'd driven everyone out of the room with his little 'performance.' With that matter settled, Harry returned his focus back to Fleur... and his eyes immediately widened to the size of saucers in his surprise...
"Fleur," Harry began, in a quiet and yet somewhat shaky voice.
After rousing from her doze at the sound of her lover's voice, Fleur smiled when she found her face pressed into his long black hair. "Yes, mon amour?"
"If I'm not mistaken... You and I… have already begun the process of bonding with each other." Harry's voice had dropped to a meaningful whisper at this point, because he already knew exactly how ridiculous what he was currently saying was supposed to be. Sure enough, when Fleur barely reacted, he figured the idea just hadn't fully registered in her mind yet.
It was supposed to be impossible, after all...
For several seconds longer, Fleur continued to nuzzle her face into Harry's neck, before she propped her chin atop his chest and gazed down into his eyes. "Arry... That's just not possible without making love... It's never happened without in all of my people's recorded history. 'Arry... I dearly want to bond with you, but we can't be bonded yet..."
At first, Harry just nodded into Fleur's hair because he was well aware of how things would normally work for a Veela bond. None of that changed what his magic was currently sensing however, so after a few quiet moments passed, he continued speaking in a low and soothing voice. "While we both know that there's no historical precedent for this, right this very second, my magic is telling me that there's an opaque, red line, connecting the two of us... It's not a full bond like the one that your parents share, but it's there, it's real, and I can sense it..."
Slowly but surely, Fleur lifted her face from within Harry's neck, and gently took a hold of his cheeks so that she could stare into his eyes. For a very short but emotionally-charged period of time, she continued to stare into his eyes as if she was trying to read his very soul through the medium of his emerald green irises. Then, the moment suddenly ended, and all of the tension flowed from her body as if it had never been there in the first place. Fleur's tear smudged face broke out into a beatifically happy smile, and she began wrapping herself around her man, as if she just couldn't create enough contact. When she was as firmly attached to her... to her bonded... as she could possibly become, she looked up at his face again and bit her bottom lip. "'Arry I… I believe you... I mean. I would have believed you either way, but I... I feel as if... I think I can even feel what you are describing, deep, deep inside of me. 'Arry... I imagine this link exists because I would burn down the whole entire world for you..."
As a happy smile formed on Harry's face, he nodded his agreement. "I feel the same... You did say that we were doing things that no one's ever done before. I imagine our bond will be strong when we..."
"When I finally take you into me," Fleur finished, nuzzling her face into her man's chest. "Tonight 'Arry... tonight. I will wait no longer. By any species' standards, Veela's, Human's, even elves', it has been long enough considering ze zings you do for me, to me, inside of me..."
Stalling for time as he constructed an appropriately romantic response, Harry rubbed Fleur's back and gently kissed her forehead. Finally, when no grand gesture entered into his mind, he decided to just shelve the romantic nonsense in favor of something both simple and honest. "Not a single thing in the entire world could keep me away."
Some time later, Harry and Fleur walked back towards the rest of their group, where they were sitting on a bench in front of Niagara Falls. Everyone quieted as the two of them approached, and Harry had literally no damned clue what to say to fill the void.
It was Fleur who spoke first, because she could easily see that her lover was in a bind. "Okay everyone... My 'Arry deed some-zing eempossibly beautiful completely by accident... Does anyone zink zat's all zat out of ze ordinary at zis point?
"Nope," began Fred, while reclining back and stretching out his legs.
"We already did the whole HARRY POTTER bit, and moved on," ended George.
"That was life-alteringly beautiful though," added Hermione.
"Agreed," announced the Gryff girls in perfect unison.
Neville smiled at his friends and then looked up at the sky with a thoughtful expression. "I've never even thought of music as a transportation device for magic before. It's a whole new medium no one researches beyond Gregorian chanting in rituals."
Fleur smiled softly at all of Harry's friends but then she also shook her head. "Veela 'ave a very old brand of magic eenvolving enchanting music. Eet's actually ze origins of ze siren folklore."
Cho just smiled and snuggled into Cedric's side. The older boy looked like he was going to thank Harry for the romantic music later.
As Harry and Fleur Conjured themselves a well-padded bench to the right of their friends, everyone continued chatting about what magics may have been forgotten over history, and the impact that they may have had on modern magic. During which time, the view that they were sitting in front of transitioned from Niagara Falls, to India's Taj Mahal. To Alberta's Lake Moraine, to the Great Wall of China, to Nevada's Grand Canyon, and about a dozen other stunningly beautiful locations all around the world.
Eventually, when he wasn't feeling so bashful anymore, Harry manned up and turned to regard his friends. "Well... Something out of the ordinary always happens to me on Halloween, but if my most recent performance was it, then this is by far the best I've had… Thank you everyone, for keeping me so close today. I know that's what you all had in mind... So… What other fun configurations were you cooking up for this room?"
Right away, everyone knew that Harry was shamelessly trying to change the subject. They very graciously let it slide.
"Football pitch," declared Cedric.
"Basketball," added Katie. "I love basketball."
"Puppies and kittens," enthused Hermione, with excitement in her voice. Selene high fived her.
Neville quirked an eyebrow at that. "Is that even possible?"
A puppy briefly appeared a few meters in front of everyone, and Hermione looked extremely pleased with herself.
"Campfire at night," offered Fleur. "I like campfire games like never 'ave I ever, telling stories and eating smores."
"Oh I like that," Cedric immediately agreed. "I don't get to camp Muggle style very much at all."
"I'd like someone to practice Kendo with me," Cho pointed out, while smiling meaningfully at Cedric.
With a gracious smile in return, Cedric immediately nodded his understanding.
Everyone in the room could see right away that Cedric was agreeing to take part, despite the certain knowledge that he was about to be thwacked repeatedly with a very stout stick (Cedric's a real man).
"Pool table, ping pong, archery range, ice rink, the possibilities are literally endless," Angelina added.
"Love
this
room," Fred and George loudly announced.
Everyone laughed at the twins' perfectly executed enthusiasm.
Allowing himself to melt into the background, Harry found his right arm curling around Fleur's waist and belly. Fleur in turn followed Cho's lead by leaning flush against his side.
It was yet another pretty damn good day.
When the entirety of Harry's group walked into the Great Hall later that night, they were all extremely relaxed and somehow tanned by a sunny day trip all around the world. They all looked like a million bucks and it was so noticeable that the rest of the school was reduced to gawking at them. Cedric started laughing as they entered the Entry Hall and conversations came to an end all around them.
"Our champions will look the part tonight," Harry declared, with a grin. "You two both look like you spent the day getting pampered at an expensive spa."
"A sightseeing tour of the wonders of the world would be an expensive day-trip for sure," Cedric readily agreed. "I need to get back to my table tonight. I'm aiming to represent Hufflepuff as a Champion after all."
As they entered the Great Hall and Cedric kissed Cho goodbye, Harry saw girls all around the room deflate, as Cedric was extraordinarily popular and was far more approachable than a certain black haired Gryffindor. Without even seeming to notice the hearts that he just broke, Cedric walked off and was embraced back into a throng of eager male Hufflepuffs.
Nodding in resignation, Fleur turned to stare up into Harry's eyes. "I will need to go to my table as well. My 'Eadmistress will expect eet as a show of school pride."
Nodding his understanding, Harry leaned aside to whisper into his girlfriend's ear. "Look for me when you're chosen then. I'll be the one making a lot of noise."
With a happy grin, Fleur pecked Harry on the cheek and then backed away with Selene at her side. "Don't go far 'Arry. I 'ave... business wiz you," she added even as she turned to walk back towards the Ravenclaw table, where she and Selene promptly grabbed a hold of little Bella and sat her down in between the two of them.
As per the norm, Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table, next to Neville and Mione and directly across from the twins. Unlike the norm, Katie, Alicia and Angelina had decided to sit further down the table, closer to the Head table than they'd normally desire to be. They wanted to have as close a view of the Goblet of Fire as they could possibly get, so they were hanging out with all of the first years for the evening.
After digging into a very healthy dinner courtesy of Dobby, Harry chatted idly with Neville about a cross species of Devil's Snare that the boy was trying to breed. Apparently, Neville wanted to create a hybrid of the deadly plant that survives solely off of dangerous infestation beasts. Neville thought that he could make a variant designed to devour only Acrumantulas for instance and it would clean them out if given enough time. Harry offered the opinion that it was a good idea just so long as Neville didn't get rid of the vine's natural weakness to light. Harry was worried that if the racial weakness was removed the stuff would outgrow the entire world.
After putting away their dinners, the twins suddenly joined the conversation, with a request for Dean and Seamus. The twins were concerned because Ron had yet to complete a single speck of homework all year long, and they were hoping that the two boys would try giving their brother a push. According to Fred, Professor McGonagall owled their parents just a few days prior, explaining that Ron was in the midst of failing every single one of his classes.
As dramatic as all of that sounded, Harry really wasn't all that surprised... Without Hermione harassing Ron to do his homework every night, it simply wouldn't get done. While in the past, he'd also never been the most driven of students, he'd also been psychologically scarred away from excelling.
What was Ron's excuse?
More recently, Harry'd apologized to Hermione for his poor study habits in the past, which of course she'd immediately blown off. She'd cheerfully explained that with her poor self-esteem at the time, she'd needed to be useful anyway, so theirs had been a perfect codependency.
Of course, Harry and Hermione could laugh about such things now, but they were both immensely relieved that they were showing so much improvement, both within themselves and in regards to each other.
Just thinking about all of that had Harry hugging Hermione with his shroud, and the woman merely smiled because she knew exactly why.
After desert was polished off, it was finally time for the Goblet to reveal who the Tournament Champions would be... Dumbledore, Madam Maxine, Karkaroff, Crouch and Ludo Bagman, stood in front of the student body, while gesturing for quiet.
"The time has come," Dumbledore announced, in a quiet and yet somehow booming voice. "If I am not mistaken, the Goblet of Fire will be revealing the champions any moment now..."
The lights in the room dimmed just a single second after Dumbledore finished speaking, causing Harry to smirk at the Headmaster's excellent showmanship. The Goblet's red flames began spluttering and sparking before lowering to a simmer just a few moments later. After a few dramatically silent moments passed, the dim red flames flared into a bright blue color and a large chuff of flame blew upward. A slim piece of paper floated out of the fire as if on an updraft, where it was quickly caught by Dumbledore and unfolded in his hands.
"The Champion for Durmstrang will be Victor Krum!"
The Durmstrang students didn't rise to their feet or call out in excitement, but rather they just started chanting Krum's name in perfectly rehearsed, seamless unison.
"Krum, Krum, Krum, Krum, Krum, Krum, Krum!"
It was all very annoying.
Harry was immediately pissed off because Krum being a champion would put Fleur in increased levels of danger.
On the other side of the spectrum, Karkaroff was losing his mind in his happiness and yelling at Krum as if he was his own son.
Harry thought that Satan and his son creature boy were a perfect match for each other.
Krum adopted a very regal and dignified air, as he slowly rose to his feet and marched off into the room behind the head table. Once he was gone, all of the Durmstrang students instantly stopped their chanting, all at once, with perfect timing, like a bunch of complete tools.
Ron wasn't dialed in on the timing for the douchie chanting, so when all of the Durmstrang students immediately stopped, he was revealed yelling out the word "Krum" at the top of his lungs. Many students all around the Great Hall began both laughing and pointing at him in their amusement. After reddening nearly to the point of spontaneous combustion, Ron shrank down into his seat.
Harry, Fred, George and Neville, just shared a glance at each other, with small, amused, smiles on their faces.
The Goblet simmered again and then turned blue, shooting out its next slip of paper.
Dumbledore caught this slip of paper as well and read the contents.
"The champion for Beauxbatton is Fleur Delacour!"
Harry went wild. He and all of the members of the Quidditch team were up on their feet, hooting and hollering like footballers. Even as they all continued to clap and cheer, Harry could see that it was a good thing that they were doing so. The Beauxbatons section of the Ravenclaw table was mostly silent and many of the girls were openly weeping. It didn't look like Fleur would be getting much support from her own school. After taking note of both Selene and that little Bella girl cheering as hard as they could, Harry became determined to do something nice for both of them.
At first, Fleur rose up to her feet with a perfect aura of elegance and poise, but then she destroyed her own regal image by blowing Harry a kiss and winking.
Without missing a beat, Harry mimed catching the kiss in the air and slapping it to his face.
Everyone in the Hall who wasn't either jealous or a hater, laughed at the perfectly timed display of affection.
Regaining her poise as if she'd never lost it, Fleur floated out of the room with a broad smile on her face.
As the occupants of the great Hall settled to their seats again, the goblet started gearing up to reveal the last Champion. Harry really needed Cedric to win now, so that the boy could help buffer Fleur from Krum.
The paper was ejected and Dumbledore grabbed it, three for three (good reflexes old man).
"The champion for Hogwarts will be Cedric Diggory!"
Once again Harry and the team along with most of the school (not the Slytherins... Gits) roared their approval. Cedric was a clear fan favorite with his easy going personality.
Cedric stood up, waved at everyone and then likewise winked at Cho, before leaving the room.
Dumbledore soon quieted everyone down so that he could continue talking. "Those are your Champions ladies and gentlemen. Now, if you haven't been chosen you can contribute by cheering for the various teams and of course the Champio…" Dumbledore was never able to finish his speech.
The Goblet of Fire had started simmering an incandescent cerulean blue again, halting Dumbledore right in his tracks.
Harry immediately had a sinking feeling that seemed to get worse and worse by the second. Then, it finally happened, and he was all but certain the situation was going pear shaped. The Goblet had once again flared and a fourth piece of paper was flying out.
Dumbledore tried to catch this last piece of paper like he had the rest of them, missed, and then watched helplessly as it flopped down onto the table. Slowly and with shaky hands, the elderly Headmaster bent over and picked up the little piece of paper. He stared at it for a good ten seconds and then his eyes snapped up towards the student body.
"HARRY POTTER!"
"No way!" The twins groaned out, in perfectly executed and simultaneous disbelief.
"Every damned Halloween," Harry muttered, with the heels of his hands pressed firmly into his eyes.
"This is ridiculous," Hermione declared, while looking well and truly pissed off.
Neville just looked at Harry and whispered the words "Magical Oath pronto."
Harry nodded and whispered back "lectern... better timing."
Neville and Hermione nodded, the twins just sighed and the rest of the team held their breaths.
"HARRY POTTER!" Dumbledore roared his name this time.
After slowly rising to his feet, Harry started walking across the Hall, with what he hoped was a calm expression firmly locked upon his face. In his peripheral vision, he could see both anger and scorn on dozens of people's faces, which he found interesting because a lot of these same students were the first to kiss his ass under normal circumstances. Thankfully, he could also see disbelief and concern on several other faces, which made him feel far less alienated and a little more philosophical about his current situation.
By the time Harry had walked up to the dais where Dumbledore was standing, he wasn't angry at all the two faced people sitting in the Great Hall, nor was he elated by the support he was receiving. Instead, he only felt numb, beneath a foot thick armor of steely determination. He was going to clear his name this time. He wasn't going to spend yet another year shunned by the sheep that comprise this school.
Not this time...
With an extremely frustrated jerk of his arm, Dumbledore gestured towards the door behind him. "Go inside Harry."
After completing a small but fierce shake of his head, Harry didn't move. Instead, he whispered the foot it would take to reach Dumbledore's ears. "My shields are down and I'm projecting what you need to know... Read me and my intentions."
When Dumbledore realized that Harry wasn't going to budge, he nodded, looked the boy in the eyes and scanned his surface thoughts. After returning to himself, the elderly Headmaster sighed in resignation, patted Harry on the shoulder and stepped away from the dais.
Stepping forward in front of Dumbledore's podium, Harry looked out at the amassed students in front of him. After drawing in a very deep breath, he started speaking in a very even, very casual tone of voice, that still managed to carry throughout the entire Great Hall.
"I didn't enter myself into the Triwizard Tournament..."
Immediately after Harry's words left his mouth, the Great Hall burst into chaos as scores of people screamed about him being a cheater. Ron could be heard yelling the words "selfish, cheating bastard" from the completely quiet Gryffindor table.
When elevating his own voice wasn't enough, Harry found himself amplifying it just a bit by saturating his voice with his magic... "I didn't enter the tournament for the following reasons..."
The Great Hall instantly quieted down. To most people, it appeared that Harry had silenced the entire student body through sheer force of personality.
After squaring up his shoulders, Harry held out his hand to raise four fingers in the air.
"Reason number one... It's a conflict of interest. I'm romantically involved with the Beauxbatton champion.
Reason number two... I have literally no damned clue how one would go about hoodwinking the Goblet of Fire.
Reason number three... I am far, far too busy training for the Quidditch team.
Reason number four..." Harry abruptly stopped speaking for just a few moments, scanning the room to make sure that everyone was paying attention...
It worked. The Great Hall was perfectly silent and still.
"Reason number four," Harry slowly repeated. "This tournament involves skills in magic that I'm not old enough to have learned yet. I would be hopelessly unprepared to take part... I cannot even legally Apparate yet, Animal Conjuration starts in fifth year, Advanced Ward Breaking starts halfway through sixth year, and Real-time Spell Deconstruction is a seventh year elective. All four of those skills are ALWAYS required in at least one of the tasks if not all of them. This tournament is designed for extremely accomplished seventh year students because of the comprehensive skill-set that is required to survive the various trials... How "brave" or "cool" you think you are... is completely irrelevant."
Harry sighed heavily as he looked out at the many skeptical faces scattered throughout the Hall. Granted, there were obviously people who already believed him, but he really wasn't looking to start a civil war at Hogwarts. Squaring up his shoulders again, Harry prepared to do what was necessary.
"Since even after everything I've said, I can still see that some of you don't believe me, I will do this." As Harry raised his wand up towards the ceiling, the tip lit up as if he was casting a Lumos spell. "I, Harry James Potter, swear on my magic that I did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire, nor did I ask someone else to put it in for me. I do not know how my name came out of the Goblet of Fire tonight, and I had no intention of taking part in the Triwizard Tournament. So mote it be."
For a split second in time, Harry's body was the epicenter of a bright flare of green light, as the magically binding oath took effect. Then, with that done, Harry slowly lowered his wand so that it was pointing at the student body. "Lumos Maxima."
Gasp! X 800
As Harry's wand lit up in a brilliantly bright Lumos, bathing the Great Hall in light like a flash grenade, everyone gasped in surprise and shielded their eyes with their hands. Up at the podium, Harry waited for everyone's faces to slowly rise back out of their arms, before he continued speaking.
"Now... I imagine that settles that little "debate," Harry called out while performing bunny fingers. "I have officially performed a magically binding oath stating that I didn't enter myself into the tournament, and as you've all just experienced, I still have access to my magic... Let's move on shall we? I'm of the opinion that someone's aiming to injure or even kill me by making me a Champion... If anyone can find a way that I don't have to take part… then I would appreciate it."
With that much accomplished, Harry abruptly spun away from the dais, and walked purposefully out of the room.
When Neville turned towards Hermione, he looked both upset and terribly impressed. "Now that was very well done."
Hermione nodded even as she wiped her eyes of a few remaining tears from Harry's Lumos spell. "Will it get him out of it."
"Magically binding contract," Neville immediately pointed out, with a shake of his head. "It probably won't get him out of the tournament, but at least he won't be a damn pariah again this year."
"That's only a consolation if he isn't eaten by something," Hermione quietly groaned.
As Harry walked down the slim hallway to the little office off of the Great Hall's stage, he found himself enjoying a nice and healthy sulk. He also wondered how best to face Cedric and Fleur, when he finally entered the room… Oh sure, he knew that they'd trust him, but it was all just so damned typical... Despite his best intentions, he was about to inconvenience his friends again. Harry had only wanted to help them both and keep Fleur safe!
After walking into a small but well-appointed room, Harry immediately located Cedric and Fleur standing together in the corner... As he expected would be the case, Krum was on the other side of the room, where he was staring at Fleur like a complete creep.
Fleur and Cedric smiled when they saw Harry and began walking over. "What are you doing here/'ere Harry/'Arry?"
"You two are going to absolutely hate this," Harry announced in a matter of fact tone of voice. He only barely managed to get those words out before three irate Headmasters stormed into the room, followed by two government officials.
"This is extraordinary," Ludo Bagman loudly exclaimed. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you all, the fourth Triwizard Tournament Champion!"
At first, Fleur and Cedric were startled into a silent stillness. Then, just a moment later, they both slapped their faces in their rising frustration. As an addition, Fleur almost immediately became pale with worry. What were they going to do?! There was so much knowledge required that Harry simply didn't know!
"Dumbeedore, 'ow deed zis appen?" Madam Maxine was in full on outrage mode at the moment. "Your age line and magical barriers... zis ees eempossyble!"
Karkaroff was nodding vehemently under Madam Maxine's armpit. "I agree Dumbledore! This is clearly blatant cheating!"
"Magically binding oath," Harry loudly interjected.
The two foreign Headmasters immediately turned towards Harry, staring at him with ice cold contempt on their faces.
With zero hesitation whatsoever, Harry returned the exact same look at the two Headmasters, as if daring them to deny the legitimacy of his word.
When she couldn't make the Potter boy back down under her stare, Madam Maxine finally wilted and turned her attention back towards Dumbledore. "Oui, yes... ze oath... We now know zat ze boy ees uneenvolved... Eet must 'ave been Dumbeedore..."
Given a fresh opening, Karkaroff immediately rounded on Dumbledore again, with a vengeful look upon his face. "Exactly! He is trying to get two kicks at the can!"
As Karkaroff and Maxine rounded on him, Dumbledore shook his head looking both impatient and frustrated. "Look... Neither of you truly believe that I cheated, so exactly what are you trying to achieve with your accusations?"
"Let our schools add more names and select a second student, and we will not accuse you of blatant cheating," Karkaroff immediately declared.
At this point, Madam Maxine was distancing herself from Karkaroff, but she was nodding thoughtfully at his idea. "Eet does seem ze fairest option Dumbeedore..."
Dumbledore looked like he would table flip any second as he stared at his fellow headmaster/headmistress. "I don't think that's possible. The number of beasts and..."
"I don't see a problem with this outcome at all," interjected Mr. Crouch, from the far side of the room. So far he'd looked more like a statue than a man, but all of the sudden he'd apparently decided he wanted to take part in the conversation.
The room stilled. Everyone stared at the very rule abiding man because he was being waaay more flexible than was expected of him.
Mr. Crouch coughed quietly before he finally began speaking. "I have been working with a... woman by the name of Delores Umbridge, and she has been somewhat... over-zealous in procuring magical beasts for the tournament. We currently have a rather large stockpile of dangerous creatures, eating us out of house and home, for no reason. I think this is the most expedient option."
Raising his hand like a grade schooler would, Harry suddenly yelled out the word "question."
The room froze and looked at Harry.
Harry just stared at the adults for several more moments, waiting for them to guess the direction of his thoughts.
They didn't. They just stared right back at him.
Very suddenly losing his temper, Harry bellowed at the top of his lungs "are you all insane?! What about the fact that I'm being dragged into this little circus performance of yours against my will?! None of you are asking the right question here! Who is it who wants me dead this time? I'm not even the age of majority yet! how will I Apparate without going to Azkaban for God's sakes?!"
It was Mr. Crouch who started answering the question, surprising everyone for a second time. "Mr. Potter, your name coming out of the Goblet of Fire signifies a magically binding contract. You will compete... or lose your magic and most likely die... You will be allowed to Apparate because this is a competition for ADULTS and by the very virtue of competing, you are magically considered an adult as well. We will add two more Champions to the teams and make this all fair for everyone."
"Except me," Harry instantly added.
"Quite," Crouch dryly replied.
Abruptly losing his patience with Crouch, Harry turned in place and speared Dumbledore with his eyes. "I trust that you didn't have anything to do with this, but I want you working on finding out the who and the how. I think you should start with the slip of paper with my name on it... Where did it come from, who's writing, how was it put in the Goblet, etcetera..."
Dumbledore immediately nodded, showing everyone that the two men had a rapport of some kind at the very least.
"I also understand that no Professor can help me train now, which is a huge problem," Harry injected into the newly quiet room. "I must learn Apparition, advanced ward schemes, Ward and Curse breaking, Animal Conjuration, spell deconstruction, and a heap of both offensive and defensive spells in only a couple week's time."
Fleur started moving closer to Harry, intending to offer help, but at a quick glance from him and an almost unnoticeable headshake, she understood. Harry didn't want to put her in a bad situation with her Headmistress and her school.
"I can help tutor him," Cedric offered, but with a troubled look upon his face. "The problem is I'll be busy with my own prep work, so my time will be at a premium... Who can help him?"
Once again, Crouch interjected himself into the conversation. "No assistance from the Professors of your school means no Professors. We will make the pertinent books available to you Harry, but I'm sure you don't want to risk breaking this contract…"
Canting his head to the side, Harry gave the government official a very cold and assessing look. "Are you by any chance actively trying to get me killed, Crouch?"
"The opposite actually," Crouch immediately replied. "I'm keeping you from magically crippling yourself."
Dumbledore eventually stepped forward, pulled Harry aside and turned him around to face him. "Unfortunately, Mr. Crouch is right, Harry... It is truly unwise to play games with magical contracts. I will make the reading material available to you and the restricted section open to you. Now... Ludo... What is the information we are receiving regarding the first task?"
Ludo, who was the only visibly thrilled person in the room, walked forward and waved his arms expansively. "The first event is a test of courage in the face of the unknown. Courage in the face of danger is a vital skill for any wizard. The test will happen a month from now. Until then, good luck preparing." At the tail end of his explanation, Ludo beamed a wide and happy smile at Harry.
Shaking his head in disgust, Harry scanned the room, taking in all of the people involved and their expressions. Then, after nodding at Fleur and Cedric, he turned to leave the room. Just as he was about to exit through the doorway however, Harry stopped in place, turned around and faced the amassed professors/politicians/Krum.
In a single instant, Harry completely flooded the study/office space with an unbelievably concentrated and intense outpouring of his magic, making his robes billow outwards and everyone's hair float away from their skin from the sheer immensity of it all. The fire in the Floo instantly turned an emerald green color before flickering at only half its normal speed, dust motes froze in the air as the atmosphere in the room became thick with unrealized potential, non-existent light sources cast illumination to reflect in eerie ways off of equally non-existent objects, and all of the wands within the room briefly released pale green sparks to splash harmlessly against their owner's clothing…
Harry was turning the little room into a crucible of magic power, as he sought out a way to adequately… express his frustration….
Krum immediately attempted to release his miasma, only to find that a foot thick shell of astonishingly dense magical power was completely cocooning every last inch of his body, preventing him from even getting started… and for the very first time since he first arrived at the school, the look of amusement that he'd been wearing dropped away from his face.
With his magic saturating the whole entire room, Harry rapidly filled his aura shroud with a rock solid variety of grim determination, an equally powerful resolve, and an intense killing intent that he'd only ever felt towards the Dursleys and Krum. He channeled these emotions into the air around Crouch, Karkaroff, Maxine, Ludo and Krum, and then he pressed them all in against their bodies with enough force to make it feel physical, tangible… real….
The four adults, and to a lesser extent Krum, all flinched at the extreme malevolence that Harry was now slamming directly against their aura shrouds, as if the teenaged boy standing in the doorway had suddenly transformed into a dragon. They all stared in abject shock at the visibly furious young man, as he pinned them in place with ungodly amounts of magical power...
Harry officially had everyone's undivided attention, so now was the time to act.
"I, Harry James Potter, hereby accept Lordship of the Potter Family, all of its holdings, properties and responsibilities. So mote it be." A blinding green light centered around Harry's right hand, and when it ended, he was wearing the Lordship ring of House Potter... If entry into the tournament automatically made him an adult in the eyes of magic, then he'd damn well insist that he be treated like an adult. He would assume his rank. He would act his part. He would demand that the injustices being perpetrated against him tonight be taken with the seriousness that they deserve… or he would make sure that the people standing in front of him suffered the… consequences… of their failure.
Harry Potter was a Most Ancient and Noble Lord… and he would have justice… one way or another…
In the seconds following Harry's instant ascension from harmless no-name child to powerful English Lord, it did appear that all of the Headmasters and Politicians in the room fully understood the message that he was delivering them, judging purely by the way their expressions grew increasingly strained, and beads of sweat began trickling down their scalps.
Clearing his throat, Harry prepared to make one final statement. "Let me make just one more thing perfectly clear to the lot of you," he bit out with an icy cold voice and a set of glowing green eyes... "I will not be snuffed out by a scheme this ridiculously stupid, nor will I allow the perpetrator to get away with it. If someone here thinks that they can so easily remove me… then they clearly have no damned idea just who it is that they're messing with."
Without another word, Harry turned in place and then marched out of the room.
For several moments in a row, nobody remaining in the room said or did a thing…It was only after the fire returned to an energetically crackling orange color and the electric feeling in the air subsided that they all turned to look at each other.
"What an impudent boy!" Karkaroff finally scoffed out, despite the fact that he was visibly trembling.
Madam Maxine didn't contradict Karkaroff, but she also didn't say anything in his support. She just stood there, pale, sweating and staring at the newly empty door.
Cedric and Fleur looked at each other and then nodded their instant understanding.
It was official... Before this was all over, Harry Potter was going to tear everyone new assholes.
Suffice it to say, Fleur Delacour was experiencing textbook conflicted emotions at the moment... She was terrified for Harry and completely incensed over the injustice of it all… but she was also shivering in excitement at the moment because of her lover's most recent magical display…
It was during times like this that Fleur wished she weren't a Veela… It would've been nice to have just one reaction to the circumstances she experienced, rather than two or three completely opposing feelings...
Either way, Fleur needed to seek out Harry, for several different reasons.
To Be Continued
Author's Note:
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